The financial success of The Jazz Singer and The Singing Fool enabled Warner Bros. to purchase a majority interest in First National in September 1928 and it began moving its productions into the Burbank lot. The First National studio, as it was then known, became the official home of Warner Bros.–First National Pictures. From 1929 to 1958, most Warner Bros. films bore the combined trademark "A Warner Bros.–First National Picture".[3] Though Warner's Sunset Boulevard studios remained in active use during the 1930s both for motion picture filming and "phonograph recordings"[4] a fire in December 1934 destroyed 15 acres (61,000 m2) of the studios in Burbank, forcing the company to put its Sunset Boulevard studio back into full use.

By 1937, Warner Bros. had all but closed the Sunset studio, making the Burbank lot its main headquarters — which it remains to this day. Eventually Warner dissolved the First National company and the site has often been referred to as simply Warner Bros. Studios since.

In a cost cutting move, Warner Bros. entered into a joint venture with Columbia Pictures in 1972 to create The Burbank Studios on the Warner lot. The joint venture lasted until 1990 when the partnership was dissolved and Columbia moved into the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Lorimar (now Sony Pictures Studios) lot in Culver City and the studio lot in Burbank became the Warner Bros. Studio again.[5]